This Week in History

HISTORY, 20 Nov 2023

Satoshi Ashikaga – TRANSCEND Media Service

20-26 November 2023

Video of the Week:

Let There Be Peace on Earth – Wintley Phipps 

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20 November

1940  World War II: Hungary becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis powers.

[1]      Hungary as One of the Axis Powers:

[2]      Hungary During WWII:

[3]      Hungary and the Holocaust:

1945  Nuremberg trials: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals start at the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg.

[1]      Nuremberg Trials:

[2]      Victor’s Justice:

[3]      Development of International Criminal Law Since Nuremberg:

1958  The Declaration of the Rights of the Child is adopted by the United Nations.

[1]      The Rights of the Child:

[2]      The Convention of the Rights of the Child:

[3]      Children in the Military:

1969  Vietnam War: The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam.

[1]      My Lai Massacre:

[2]      My Lai Courts Martial:

1977  Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel, when he meets Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement.

1979  Grand Mosque seizure: About 200 Sunni Muslims revolt in Saudi Arabia at the site of the Kaaba in Mecca during the pilgrimage and take about 6000 hostages. The Saudi government receives help from Pakistani special forces to put down the uprising. → Mosque of Makkah: The Attack, Seizure on Masjid Al Haram (Part 1)

1989  Velvet Revolution: The number of protesters assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia, swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million.

[1]     Velvet Revolution:

[2]     CIA and Color Revolutions in the World:

1994  The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war. (Localized fighting resumes the next year.

1998  A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declares accused terrorist Osama bin Laden “a man without a sin” in regard to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

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21 November

1905  Albert Einstein‘s paper that leads to the mass–energy equivalence formula, E = mc², is published in the journal Annalen der Physik.

[Einstein – Annalen der Physik]

1920  Irish War of Independence: On “Bloody Sunday” in Dublin, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) assassinated a group of British Intelligence agents, and British forces killed 14 civilians at a Gaelic football match at Croke Park.

1962  The Chinese People’s Liberation Army declares a unilateral ceasefire in the Sino-Indian War.

1964  Second Vatican Council: The third session of the Roman Catholic Church‘s ecumenical council closes.

[1]      Vatican II: Its Significance and Summary:

[2]      Vatican II in the Cold War Era:

[3]      Vatican II and Communism:

[4]      CIA Behind the Church and the Vatican II:

[5]      CIA, Sister Lucy and Vatican II:

[6]      Vatican II, CIA, Liberation Theology, and KGB:

1969  U.S. President Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Satō agree on the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. The U.S. retains rights to bases on the island, but these are to be nuclear-free.

[1]      The Nuclear Secret Behind the Nuclear-Free Agreement of Okinawa:

[2]      The Emperor Hirohito, Okinawa, and Discrimination:

1970  Vietnam War: Operation Ivory Coast: A joint United States Air Force and Army team raids the Sơn Tây prisoner-of-war camp in an attempt to free American prisoners of war thought to be held there.

1971  Indian troops, partly aided by Mukti Bahini (Bengali guerrillas), defeat the Pakistan army in the Battle of Garibpur.

1995  The Dayton Agreement is initialed at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio, ending three and a half years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

[The U.S. Foreign Policy in the Balkans and the Dayton Agreement]

2002 NATO invites Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to become members.

[1]      Enlargement of NATO:

[2]      Russia and the Enlargement of NATO:

[3]      Gorbachev, G. H. Bush, G.W. Bush, NATO and the Ukraine Crisis:

2004  The second round of the Ukrainian presidential election is held, giving rise to massive protests and controversy over the election’s integrity.

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22 November

1943  World War II: Cairo Conference: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Chinese Premier Chiang Kai-shek meet in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss ways to defeat Japan.

1963  U.S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated and Texas Governor John Connally is seriously wounded by Lee Harvey Oswald, who also kills Dallas Police officer J. D. Tippit after fleeing the scene. U.S Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as the 36th President of the United States afterwards.

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23 November

1934  An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden discovers an Italian garrison at Walwal, well within Ethiopian territory. This leads to the Abyssinia Crisis.

1944  World War II: The Lotta Svärd Movement is disbanded under the terms of the armistice treaty in Finland after the Continuation War

1946  French naval bombardment of Hai Phong, Vietnam, kills thousands of civilians.

1981  Iran–Contra affair: Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17)…to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

[1]      Iran-Contra Affair:

[2]      The U.S./CIA, Iran and Nicaragua:

[3]      The U.S./CIA and Iran:

[4]      The U.S./CIA and Nicaragua/Latin America:

1992  The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, is introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.

2001  The Convention on Cybercrime is signed in Budapest, Hungary.

2011  Arab Spring: After 11 months of protests in Yemen, Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh signs a deal to transfer power to the vice president, in exchange for legal immunity

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24 November

1940  World War II: The First Slovak Republic becomes a signatory to the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis powers.

1989  After a week of mass protests against the Communist regime known as the Velvet Revolution, Miloš Jakeš and the entire Politburo of the Czechoslovak Communist Party resign from office. This brings an effective end to Communist rule in Czechoslovakia.

2013  Iran signs an interim agreement with the P5+1 countries, limiting its nuclear program in exchange for reduced sanctions.

[1]      Iran Nuclear Deal:

[2]      Nuclear Program of Iran:

[3]      Iran and Venezuela:

2016  The government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army sign a revised peace deal, bringing an end to the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war.

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25 November

1915  Albert Einstein presents the field equations of general relativity to the Prussian Academy of Sciences.

1917  World War I: German forces defeat Portuguese army of about 1,200 at Negomano on the border of modern-day Mozambique and Tanzania.

1918  Vojvodina, formerly Austro-Hungarian crown land, proclaims its secession from Austria-Hungary to join the Kingdom of Serbia.

1943  World War II: Statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina is re-established at the State Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

1947  Red Scare: The “Hollywood Ten” are blacklisted by Hollywood movie studios.

1975  Suriname gains independence from the Netherlands.

1981  Pope John Paul II appoints Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI) Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

1986  Iran–Contra affair: U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese announces that profits from covert weapons sales to Iran were illegally diverted to the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua. → Iran-Contra Affairs Timeline

1992  The Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia votes to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with effect from January 1, 1993.

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26 November

1778  In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook becomes the first European to visit Maui.

[History of Hawaii]

1941  World War II: The Hull note is given to the Japanese ambassador, demanding that Japan withdraw from China and French Indochina, in return for which the United States would lift economic sanctions. On the same day, Japan’s 1st Air Fleet departs Hitokappu Bay for Hawaii.

[1]      The Hull Note: The Final Piece Leading to War:

[2]      The Political Environment Around the U.S.-Japan Relations in 1941:

1942   World War II: Yugoslav Partisans convene the first meeting of the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia at Bihać in northwestern Bosnia.

1942  Casablanca, the movie, premieres in New York City.

[The Movie “Casablanca” and the World War II in 1942]

1944  World War II: A German V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth’s shop in London, United Kingdom, killing 168 people. Germany V-1 and V-2 attacks on Antwerp, Belgium.

1950  Korean War: People’s Volunteer Army troops from the People’s Republic of China launch a massive counterattack in North Korea against South Korean and United Nations forces (Battle of the Ch’ongch’on River and Battle of Chosin Reservoir), ending any hopes of a quick end to the conflict.

1986  The trial of John Demjanjuk, accused of committing war crimes as a guard at the Nazi Treblinka extermination camp, starts in Jerusalem.

2003  The Concorde makes its final flight, over Bristol, England.

2011  NATO attack in Pakistan: NATO forces in Afghanistan attack a Pakistani check post in a friendly fire incident, killing 24 soldiers and wounding 13 others.

[1]      NATO Forces Attack in Pakistan:

[2]      Pakistan–NATO relations:

[3]      Pakistan and CIA:

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Satoshi Ashikaga is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment. Having worked as researcher, development program/project officer, legal protection/humanitarian assistance officer, human rights monitor-negotiator, managing-editor, and more, he prefers a peaceful and prudent life.  His previous work experiences, including those in war zones and war-torn zones, constantly remind him of the invaluableness of peace.

Disclaimer: The author and TMS take no responsibility for–and do not necessarily subscribe to–contents of websites hyperlinked as sources.


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This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 20 Nov 2023.

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